Nvidia Board Weighs Ousting Jensen Huang; Stock Down 8% on Report

Nvidia shares fell 8.14% to $159.51 in after-hours trading on November 11 after The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that the board is preparing to remove co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang over alleged extramarital affairs. By early November 12, the company had issued no press release, statement, or SEC filing on the report, and company records still listed Huang as CEO.

What has actually been confirmed?

Nothing. Reuters reported that the board met on November 11 to decide Huang's future. The Financial Times said the meeting followed revelations of an alleged affair with a top company executive; Business Insider described it as a second affair, according to those outlets. No vote outcome, replacement candidate, severance terms, or board-seat decision has been disclosed.

Reuters noted that Nvidia's bylaws allow removal of the CEO "with or without cause" by a majority vote of directors. The board has 11 directors, all independent except Huang. As recently as November 8, the board had publicly expressed confidence in him. That statement now reads as a marker of how fast the situation moved.

How much have investors lost?

A 2,000-share position was worth $452,640 at the October 12 close of $226.32. At the after-hours price on November 11, it was worth $319,020 — a loss of $133,620, or 29.52%. In premarket trading on November 12, the stock stood at $163.58, down 5.84% from the $173.73 close.

Most of that decline preceded the Journal story. Reuters tied the earlier selling to a board investigation into Huang's relationship with a businesswoman whom U.S. intelligence was reportedly probing over chip shipments to China. Lawmakers also began pushing for tighter export controls — government limits on selling chips abroad — adding a policy overhang to the governance question.

The business itself looks unchanged. Nvidia reported $96 billion in Q2 revenue and guided Q3 to $108.0 billion, plus or minus 2%.

Is founder risk already priced in?

Largely, yes, according to the market's own signals. On Polymarket, traders priced a 0.475 probability that Huang's resignation or removal is announced by November 30. Nvidia's market capitalization stands at roughly $4.195 trillion, making it one of the largest holdings in market-cap-weighted index funds. Investors who own it only through an S&P 500 or Nasdaq-100 fund share the exposure.

One portfolio manager told Reuters: "The market is starting to price Nvidia without its founder as the likely outcome." Her firm, Minotaur Capital, owns Nvidia shares. Huang has been the face of Nvidia's partnerships with hyperscalers and AI labs; investors label this key-person risk. In August, he called Nvidia "the only company in the world that creates, builds, and offers an entire AI factory platform" and said demand was "much higher" than supply.

What comes next?

The first test is procedural: whether Nvidia files an 8-K under Item 5.02, the section companies use to disclose executive changes. The absence of any filing so far leaves the Journal report unverified.

The bigger test is the earnings call scheduled for November 17. If revenue lands inside the $108.0 billion guidance range and the stock holds above $159.51, the discount is about governance rather than fundamentals. A close below that level after the report would signal that the market is questioning the business itself. If the board acts quickly and decisively, it addresses a credibility problem and preserves the business case; until an 8-K appears, every figure in this story rests on unnamed sources.